Cross-border march targets migrant deaths, reform

Micaela Saucedo has walked in all five Marcha Migrantes since the inaugural trek in 2006. This year’s event starts Feb. 2 at the border fence near the ocean. The 125-mile march will continue along the border to Mexicali, ending on Feb. 7. Earnie Grafton • U-T

Micaela Saucedo has walked in all five Marcha Migrantes since the inaugural trek in 2006. This year’s event starts Feb. 2 at the border fence near the ocean. The 125-mile march will continue along the border to Mexicali, ending on Feb. 7. Earnie Grafton • U-T

Nearly 100 activists are readying camping gear and fashioning crosses for a 125-mile trek in remembrance of migrants who died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and to push for changes in immigration policies.

“We will take the route that migrants take,” said Micaela Saucedo, who has participated in every Marcha Migrante event since the inaugural one in 2006. “We do this to make people aware that we really need an immigration reform in both countries and we don’t want more deaths on the border.”

The San Diego-based advocacy group Border Angels (Angeles de la Frontera), which coordinates the marches, is one of several groups trying to lower the border-crossing death toll. This is one sliver of the highly divisive, often impassioned immigration debate that all sides appear to agree on: lives should not be lost in the scorching deserts, rugged mountains or tempestuous seas.

Where the groups diverge wildly is on strategies for securing the border and addressing other aspects of illegal immigration.

Pro-immigrant advocates, including those marching next month, favor a legislative overhaul that includes a legal entry system for migrants and a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented already living in the United States. Anti-immigration groups prefer a security-first model that bolsters enforcement of existing immigration laws and adds resources for the Border Patrol.

The sixth annual Marcha Migrante, dubbed the “Trail of Tears” because it covers territory where migrants have perished, is scheduled for Feb. 2-7. The participants are set to start from Tijuana’s Monumento de la Playa and end at Mexicali’s Hotel Migrante, a shelter for people deported from the U.S. The journey will encompass roads and trails on both sides of the border.

In recent years, the annual death count along that border has been in the high 300s to the mid-400s, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Immigration experts and migrant advocates believe the number is much higher, saying the official tally overlooks bodies found by local law enforcement or in Mexico.

“It is a very narrow definition of border death,” said Charles Munnell, a professor at the University of Houston Center for Immigration Research.

Border Patrol figures reflect deaths reported to the agency and bodies found by agents, said Lloyd Easterling, a spokesman for the Border Patrol.

Increased Border Patrol security measures that have rerouted “illegal border traffic from traditional urban routes to less populated and geographically harsher areas” have curbed the number of crossers but also contributed to fatalities, according to a Congressional Research report issued in July.

“One person dying in the desert at the hands of these smugglers bringing them across is one too many,” Easterling added. “That is why we continue ... telling people about the very real dangers of crossing the border illegally.”

“Obviously no one wants anyone to die on our border,” said Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen. “If they really cared about deaths on the border, they would join American citizens in calling for secure borders.”

For Saucedo, head of Casa Refugio Elvira in Tijuana, a shelter for deported families, the upcoming march spotlights the absence of a legal entry system for Mexicans and Latin Americans and a lack of economic opportunity in those countries. A similar 75-mile walk is held every May by the Tucson-based Human Rights Coalition (Coalición de Derechos Humanos).

“The intention is to bear witness,” said Kat Rodriguez, the group’s program director. “Attention that brings to light the actual issues, not just about people crossing and dying but also about why people are crossing, is good.”